Nick Sal's HubSpot Inbound Marketing and Consulting Blog

Part of running a successful business is knowing what works and what doesn’t work. Data gives businesses the ability to understand its audience and mold content to be as valuable to them as possible. Without data, change is hard to come by. And progressive change is what keeps corporations and organizations of today in business.

That’s where inbound marketing and HubSpot come in. Marketing is most effective when it’s trackable and measurable. How many views did your page get? How many downloads for the ebook were there? And where did they find it from? Those are the questions that HubSpot answers, and the way it answers them is super simple.

Thanks to HubSpot’s tracking abilities, we were able to present our client with 200 new leads in just 48 hours. How? By producing persona-specific content, a straightforward CTA and lead-focused landing page. After simply sharing the content to our targeted audience on social media, HubSpot immediately started reporting that it was flying off of digital shelves. The Inbound marketing methodology combined with HubSpot’s technology made this all possible.

The Inbound Marketing Methodology at Work

Our client, a neurological pediatrics center, was looking to gain a larger span of potential customers, partners etc. We specifically focused on an audience comprised of parents of children with possible ADD or ADHD. What better way to get their attention than to create a valuable and informative piece of downloadable content, a checklist?

Our checklist demonstrated gender differences in symptoms of ADD or ADHD. An informative introduction, a crisp and tidy background, obligatory images of happy children, and 2 pages of checklists later, we had a 3-page download ready to release.

Using HubSpot, we created a landing page, a simple form and fancy download button (CTA). We used the landing page to demonstrate the WHAT the checklist was about, WHO the checklist was for and WHY they wanted to download it. Upon completion of the form, the content was instantly emailed to them.

As soon as all the pieces were in place, the posting, linking, tweeting and sharing began. With the client’s website already generating substantial amounts of organic traffic, we also made sure the content was easily accessible from the main website. We even featured this content in a section of the e-newsletter as well, tapping into various communication channels.

The Result was in the Data

Within the first 48 hours after posting, we had 251 social media views to the landing page. Not too bad for a 3-page document. Facebook? Twitter? Nope. Spoiler alert... it was LinkedIn.

Of those 250 page views, there were 221 downloads. Ninety-eight percent of the downloads and page views within the first 48 hours were from LinkedIn alone. Some sporadic direct views from the website and only two clicks from Facebook (none from Twitter) accounted for the rest of where this influx of intrigued traffic was coming from.

Thanks to HubSpot’s analytics, Media Fusion was able to see exactly where the interest was coming from and act on it. Aside from the list of email address and names of those who downloaded the content, HubSpot also tracked information of those who just viewed the page. The data told us where they came from (social media, website, email, organic search etc.) and what they all did.

We now had a list of over 200 marketing qualified people visiting the website and reading the information. While we were all dancing in our seats at the numbers, we know the work is still far from over. The next step is nurturing those leads into customers, partners, fans, etc. These prospects are currently consuming ADD/ADHD related content on a regular basis.

Tracking Results

HubSpot not only provides the necessary tools to present and create great content, it tells you whether you’re doing it right or not. Anyone can create content, share it, then sit, wait and hope for higher sales or more phone calls. But if you want to see results, understand an audience, and analyze results, HubSpot’s tools are the Nielsen of data tracking. Inbound marketing requires a commitment of time. The data proves that inbound techniques and strategies work. Follow the inbound marketing methodology and be consistent.

Cindy Kelly is a Certified Inbound Marketing Specialist, and the founder of Media Fusion - an Inbound Marketing and PR Agency based in Tampa Florida. Media Fusion is a HubSpot Certified Partner. Nick Sal, this blog's editor, has worked with Cindy and her agency on HubSpot related consulting projects for nearly two years.